Elon Musk ‘in talks’ to buy TIKTOK from China to dodge impending US ban on app over security fears
ELON Musk is said to be in talks with China over the possibility of buying TikTok to avoid an impending US ban on the platform.
The app is facing a ban in the US from January 19 due to national security concerns.
Officials in Beijing—home to TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance—are reportedly discussing a possible sale to the tech tycoon, Bloomberg reports.
But Tiktok has dismissed the claim as “pure fiction”.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
TikTok‘s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, must sell the beloved app to a government-approved buyer by January 19 or face a ban over security concerns about China.
The US government alleges TikTok allows Beijing to collect data, spy on users and spread propaganda but China and ByteDance have strongly denied the claims.
The report said Chinese officials are now in preliminary talks about a potential sale to Mr Musk should the firm be unable to block the ban.
It said the social media giant’s US business could either be sold through a competitive process or through an arrangement by the Chinese government.
One of the possibilities discussed by China sees the Tesla boss taking over TikTok US operations.
The report estimated the value of TikTok’s US operations at between $40 billion and $50 billion.
The move would provide Musk with a huge user base and unlimited data as TikTok has over 170 million users in the US – benefitting X as well as Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI.
Musk is a close ally of Trump and is expected to play an influential role in Washington in the coming four years.
The possibility of a ban has sparked controversy due to the platform’s wild popularity.
Incoming US president Donald Trump has suggested his administration would block the ban, but he enters office after it is due to take effect.
He has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a “political resolution”.
It’s not clear how much ByteDance knows about the Chinese government discussions or whether TikTok and Musk have been involved.
It’s also unclear whether Musk, TikTok and ByteDance have held any talks about the terms of any possible deal, according to Bloomberg.
TikTok has challenged the law, taking an appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.
The US Supreme Court appeared inclined to uphold the ban, with justices seeming to be persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company’s connections to China overrides concerns about restricting speech.
TikTok has previously been banned from Government devices in the UK and some other countries over concerns about ByteDance’s links to China.